In
the 11th chapter of the Book of Hebrews, faith is described as: "The
assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God,
so things seen are made out of that which does not appear.

In
the Hebraic world, the rabbi is the father of his congregation. Paul
called his followers his little children, saying: "Although you
have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. I
became your father in Jesus Christ through the gospel. I urge you
then to be imitators of me"

Defining Christ as the
power and wisdom of God, Paul tells us we have many guides. In fact,
there are as many guides to your success as there are people in the
world. Ask someone how to get a job and he will say you must know the
right people. Another will tell you that you must have an education,
and still another that you must join the right club, or live on the
right side of the street. You will be given as many directives
towards your objective as there are people you ask.

Although
our guides in the operation of this law are countless, as we apply it
our creative power will become personalized and take on form, as it
did in Paul. And when that happens there is no one to turn to but
self. That is why Paul urges everyone to test himself, otherwise he
will not realize that Jesus Christ is in him and fail to meet the
test.

Paul tells us that the world was created by the
word of God, and John says Jesus Christ is that word. (Revelation
19). Jesus Christ is he who created the world and all things within
it, be they good, bad, or indifferent. And who is He? Your own
wonderful Human Imagination! God’s creative power - as pure
imagining - works in the depth of your soul, underlying all of your
faculties, including perception. He streams into your surface mind
least disguised in the form of creative fancy.

This is
what I mean when I ask you to test Him. I am not in the habit of
wearing a flower in my lapel when standing at the platform, but today
I was thinking about asking you to hold a rose in your hand. As I did
I held a red rose in my imaginary hand and felt its soft, velvety
touch. At that moment I called forth a rose which was not seen with
my mortal eye but seen and felt in my Human Imagination. This evening
that unseen reality became seen, as a lady came with a red rose and
asked if I would wear it.

God is a protean being. It is
He who is playing the part of the lady who gave me the rose I
imagined. There never was another Jesus Christ and there never will
be another! He is the creator of the world and all things in it, even
a simple little thing like a rose. When the lady decided to pick some
roses from her garden, she had no idea she was executing a simple
experiment on my part. This afternoon I held a rose in my hand,
thereby calling a thing that was not seen as though it were seen; and
tonight the unseen becomes seen. That’s how the world was
created by the Word of God, who is the Human Imagination!

Have
faith in Jesus Christ, not as some being on the outside, but as your
own wonderful Human Imagination. If anyone says: "Look! There is
Christ,” or: “Here he is," don’t believe him;
for Jesus Christ is the creative power of the universe and He is in
you as your very thought!

Although it does not yet
appear what we shall be, we know that when He appears we will know
him, for “we shall be like him." As your father in Christ,
through the gospel I teach I urge you to be imitators of me until
Christ is formed in you. Then the true meaning of the fatherhood of
God will be revealed, and you will know yourself to be the Father.
Everyone and every living thing in the world is a part of being
played by the one and only Father, who is God. The whole is contained
in the feeling Father, and the world is pushed out from every
Father.

Omnipresent, God is alive in you now, so I ask
you to test Him. Would you like a better job? Greater income? Greater
recognition? What would you do right now if it were true? Now test
God by thinking of a friend. Hear him congratulate you on your good
fortune. See his face light up with joy and feel his presence. Do
that, and you have performed a magical act, for God has acted and all
things are possible to God.

You do not have to devise
the means necessary to make your imaginal act come to pass. He who
thought of the friend and saw the whole thing will build a bridge of
incident across which you will move to the fulfillment of that which
has been done. That is Christ!

Certainly this lady is
not in the habit of bringing me flowers and I never wear one on this
platform, but I couldn’t help but when I saw all those lovely
roses and heard her say: "I cut these from my garden today. Will
you please wear one tonight?" Then she picked out a red one. I
had painted that picture vividly in my mind’s eye and she
played her part perfectly. So I ask you to try using your Imagination
in this most simple way.

Now let me share an experience
of a daughter and her mother. The daughter wrote, saying: "While
in the silence I heard the crying of a child. It was not the cry of a
baby, but of the ages. It was a sound I knew would arouse man from
his deep sleep and set him free to eternal joy. I have seen and heard
many things in heavenly spheres, but nothing compares to the cry of
this heavenly child." Her experience reminds me of Blake’s
words when he spoke of the daughters of Beulah, saying: "They
heard the voice of the child and began to awake from sleep. All
things heard the voice of the child and began to awake to life."

In
the mother’s letter, she said: "In my dream my daughter
called to say she was alone and the baby was due. As I entered her
apartment I realized it was not my daughter on the bed, but a friend.
Then I realized I was holding a newborn child wrapped in a blanket
and knew it was mine. The scene changed and I found myself in a
hospital. My daughter appeared, saying: ‘I have gotten in touch
with my father, Neville. He is coming to see me.’ Then you and
I are standing looking at the child, as he smiled, displaying
perfectly formed lower teeth. Looking at me you said: ‘Have you
forgotten that all the children in my family are born with perfectly
formed teeth?’ Then you turned and walked away."

In
the Old Testament, David cried out: "Arise, O Lord and break the
teeth of the wicked." And in the New Testament, those who
refused to accept the doctrine of Christ wept and gnashed their teeth
as the door opened and the righteous entered the kingdom of
heaven.

Loving the glamour, the praise, and honors of
men, man pays no attention to the invitation to enter the kingdom by
applying this principle. Instead, he follows countless guides in
Christ by feeling he must meet the right people and live on the right
side of the tracks in order to succeed. So when the moment comes and
those who abide by the gospel of Christ enter the kingdom, those who
chose the countless guides will show their remorse and anguish by
gnashing their teeth.

When Christ is formed in you I
will no longer be your father. I have introduced you to Him and
fathered you while your faith is child-like, but when Christ is
formed in you, you will know yourself to be the Father.

In
the world you may think yourself wise in the language of God, but if
David does not call you Father in the spirit, you do not know what
you are talking about! You will never know that your Human
Imagination is being formed into the likeness of God the Father until
it is revealed in you. When your Imagination is completely formed,
you are born from above to discover the Fatherhood of God. You will
see the sacrificial cross that God crucified Himself on split from
top to bottom as you ascend into the kingdom of heaven. And the Holy
Spirit will descend upon you in bodily form as a dove. On that day
God the Father will abide with you and all you will feel is
love!

In the meantime, test Jesus Christ, God’s
creative power in you as your Human Imagination! Do you want a better
job? More money? Whatever you want claim it just as simply as I did
the rose. Put on the feeling of possession and wear it as though it
were true right now. If it is a better job you want, where would you
sit if you had it? How would your mate see you? Sit behind that
special desk and let your wife (or husband) see you there. Live as
though it were true and have faith in Jesus Christ, the creative
power and wisdom of God.

People have personified this
power and hung little icons on the wall. They cross themselves before
these little things made by human hands. But God is like pure
imagining in us. He works in the very depths of our soul underlying
all of our faculties, including perception, and streams into our
surface mind least disguised in the form of creative fancy.

You
can catch God in the act of creating by holding a dozen roses in your
arms, smelling them, and feeling their soft, velvety petals. As you
fill a lovely crystal vase with water and place the roses in it,
observe the stems though the crystal. Look closely and you will even
see the water level in the vase. As you do this, God is streaming
into your surface mind least disguised in the form of creative
fancy.

Imagination is defined as spiritual sensation.
Come, let us now sense spiritual things that are not physically
present. Right now I want you to feel a tennis ball, then a baseball,
a volleyball, and a golf ball. They all feel different, do they not?
If you can discriminate between these different balls, are they not
real? If you can touch a tennis ball and spiritually distinguish it
from a baseball, it must exist, even though it is unseen by mortal
eye. So you see: you can behold a thing that is not seen by the
mortal eye as though it were, and if you do your faith in Jesus
Christ will cause the unseen to become seen.

Jesus
Christ is contemporary, not some being who lived two thousand years
ago. God Himself came and comes into human history in the person of
Jesus Christ. As your Human Imagination, He is your very being. If
all things are made by Him and you can trace the origin of an event
to its imaginal act, you have found Him.

All things were
made by the Human Imagination and without Him was not anything made
that was made. If during the day you imagine unlovely things, they
are going to happen! The world believes that Jesus Christ is another,
but the great Hebrew confession of faith tells us: "Hear, O
Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one." There is only one
creator. It is the Human Imagination who kills and makes things
alive, wounds and heals. Whether you use or misuse your creative
power, the same being will bring it to pass. So if you desire lovely
things, you must imagine lovely thoughts. Your friends are your own
lack or limitation made visible. Like Job, pray for your friends and
your own fears will be lifted.

In Hebrew, the words for
faith are “amen” and “emet”. In the 3rd
chapter of Revelation, God’s creative power is called “the
Amen”: "These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and
true witness." And in the 1st chapter of 2 Corinthians we are
told that all the promises of God find their fulfillment in the Amen.
"That is why we declare the Amen through him."

The
God in you and in me is He who made these promises. As a physical man
called Neville I can do nothing, but I can do anything that I
imagine! Imagining a thing and thinking it is done is saying amen in
the belief that, because I imagined it, it must come to pass. How it
will happen, I do not know. I only know it will, just as the rose
appeared this evening.

I ask you to test your creative
power every moment of time. Live with absolute faith in Jesus Christ.
He is a person because you are a person. As you imagine a state, the
creative power of the world will bring it into reality. Claim a
glorious future for yourself by making the future the present. Have
your friends congratulate you on your good fortune now, and have
faith in Jesus Christ, knowing he is your Own Wonderful Human
Imagination!